Kalākaua Park is the original town square of Hilo town. It was the site of the first Christian Mission in the area. Waiakea Mission Station-Hilo Station was built there in 1825.
Because the missionaries were from New England, they wanted to create a township similar to what they had known at home, and so the site evolved into the equivalent of a New England style town square, bordered by important civic buildings. The District Courthouse and Police Station, and the U.S. Post Office, Federal Courthouse (now offices), and Office Building.
Around 1877, the square was declared a park and dedicated by King David Kalākaua. It is located at 19°43′31″N 155°05′19″W.
It lies between Waianuenue Avenue and Kalakaua Street, and Kinoʻole Street and Keawe Street. Kinoʻole Street, originally Pitman Street, was named for Kinoʻole o Liliha Pitman. A bronze statue of Kalākaua, by Henry Bianchini, in the middle of the park holds a taro leaf and ipu (gourd used in ancient chants). A time capsule was buried in 1991 during a total solar eclipse. It is to be opened when the next total solar eclipse is visible here.
The Old Hilo Police Station
The Old Hilo Police Station was added to the National Register of Historic Places on September 4, 1979. It had been built in 1932, and was considered quite modern and innovative. It remained in use as a police station until 1975.
There are many rumors about the old Hilo Police Station. Two that frequently pop up are:
The King’s Daughters’ Home in Hilo
FAKE: The old Hilo Police Station was originally known as The King’s Daughters Home. It was built for daughters of the King of Hawaiʻi. They were kept there and not allowed to mix with the common people.
REAL: The King’s Daughters Homes had nothing to do with a temporal king or the police station. The King’s Daughters were deeply religious upper-class women who wanted to do good for society. They created a series of convalescent homes for the less fortunate. Upon learning that many of Hilo’s working-class women who had to undergo surgery had nowhere to go to convalesce, they are said to have built one in Hilo specifically for women.
The Dungeon in the Old Hilo Police Station
FAKE: A dungeon was dug in the basement of the Old Hilo Police Station where prisoners were kept. During a flood, the prisoners were drowned. Their ghosts continue to haunt the Police Station. The dungeon is now filled in with concrete.
REAL: The Old Hilo Police Station never had a basement. This story conflates two things that are true, and runs with them. 1) There was a “lua kanaka” where prisoners once were kept. It was a natural cave near the Wailuku River. 2) There was a pit in the back building of the old Police Station. It is now filled in with concrete. But, back in the day, it was for the mechanic who worked on the police car. In the days before hydraulic lifts, it was common to dig a pit for the mechanic to stand in. The car was simply driven over the pit, rather than raised up on a stand.
Kalākaua Park Memorial
On top of the white marble block in Kalākaua Park, 157 names of Hawaiʻi Island World War II dead are inscribed. A pond in which fish glide between flowering waterplants reflects one side showing a central figure, a winged fighting man representing all combat forces. His wings signify protection and peace. On either side of him are people of the world living together in harmony. The back is inscribed “That their spirit may guide us to an ever living peace among all mankind.”[
The monument to those who died in World War II from the Island of Hawaiʻi was conceived in 1943 by the Hawaii Island Chamber of Commerce and completed in 1948. Charles William Dickey Associates were chosen as architects. They commissioned Sculptor Roy King of Honolulu to design and carve the monument of Vermont Danby Imperial white marble. Hawaii American Legion Veterans and Hawaii County donated the money.
At dedication October 31, 1948, Harold R. Warner, chairman of the Hawaii Island Chamber of Commerce memorial committee, turned the monument over to county chairman Clem A. Akina. Hundreds of residents stood in silence as Shojiro Takayama, who lost two sons in World War II, unveiled the monument. Veterans of the 442nd Infantry Regiment and 100th Infantry Battalion turned out.
Later, two plaques were added to opposite ends of the monument, in memory of Hawaii County’s honored dead from the Korean War and Vietnam War. They are inscribed, respectively, inscribed “Our deaths are not ours, they are yours. They will mean what you make them. Whether our lives and our deaths were for peace and a new hope or for nothing we cannot say. It is you who must say this,” and “We leave you our deaths. Give them their meaning. Give them an end to the war and a true peace. Give them a victory that ends the war and a peace afterwards.”
